Welcome back,
I like your website. Like you I am interested in the show side of things. Never read Gerald Binks's book but I am well aware of his influence.
Do you plan to keep any varieties in particular?

I caught the same flight. There was a half hour or so wait for the birds to clear customs at Qantas Frieght (the building labeled Australian Air Express) but that will probably be a bit faster if you are flying on a weekday.
Why are you moving to Tasmania?

I moved house from Vic to Tas with a flock of canaries. The Spirit of Tasmania does take birds but you will need to apply for an import permit from the DPIWE. The permit is free but it takes time to organise.
I flew my birds with Qantas freight from Melbourne because it was faster.

Does anyone know anything about the rumours that the importation of budgerigars will be allowed again within the next two years?
If importation from the UK is allowed again.......
Do you think it will have a positive effect on the hobby?
Is there likely to be any noticable improvement of the quality of birds on the Australian show bench?

okay if the pair you have already have reasonable type you should be fine for now.
If you are unable to get good typey lutino outcrosses in the future, you can use an olive hen which when bred to lutino males will give you normal looking males split for lutino and lutino hens. You could also use dark green hens or even light green hens but never grey green hens as grey will dull the colour. I prefer to breed lutino to lutino where possible.
Cheers

Hi Steve,
Lutinos are nice. You should breed some nice ones with the pair that you have. Some breeders try to get deeper colour by breeding lutinos with two doses of the dark factor (technically lutino masking olive green ) but I wouldn't bother.
When you say posture, do you mean the modern show type?
Kind regards

Hi Nadene,
Thanks for the reply.
It's never nice losing long term breeders but it is inevitable. Two breeders I knew kept birds right up till the day they died. There have been a couple of younger ones who replaced them but while they breed and are involved in the club they do not show as much as the older breeders did.
Like you I have only been in the bird hobby a few years so it's hard for me to imagine how big some clubs used to be.
Kind regards
Drogo

Hi all,
I am curious about how the budgerigar show scene has been going in Australia. I have heard talk of how it has declined in the UK but I don't know if that is true.
Has there been any decline in the number of breeders participating in the Australian show scene over, say, the last 30 years?
I breed canaries and most agree that there are less breeders at each club than previous decades. Some type breeds have declined and at least one colour variety has been lost. Has anything similar happened to the budgerigar hobby?
Drogo

There is Exhibition, Miniature Exhibition, pet type and wild type. There is also the Japanese helicopter crest type. No such thing as English or American.
The term English became outdated when Germany surpassed England in producing Exhibition budgerigars for the first time in the 1990s. Exhibition birds simply aren't called English anymore.
The term American comes from the idea that America is the center of the entire world so if a budgerigar is not "English" it must be American. How many common colour varieties of pet type birds originated in America? America's contribution of colour varieties to the budgerigar world is small compared to Europe or Australia.
The case for calling pet type budgerigars American is extremely weak.